How I Plan Our Week of Home Preschool + FREE Weekly Planner!
When I decided to start preschool at home with my son, I knew I’d need to find a balance between teacher-me and mom-me. As a former educator, I love having a little structure to our days! But as a mom, I want this season to feel relaxed, playful, and enjoyable. My goal isn’t to recreate a classroom at home; it’s simply to give my son a little taste of preschool before he’s ready for kindergarten and more importantly to foster a love for learning.
So I created a free weekly home preschool planner to make planning our week simple without taking away from the play, flexibility, and little moments that make home preschool so special. Here’s exactly how I use it and you can too!
What’s Inside the Home Preschool Weekly Planner:
I made this planner with two things in mind: Simplicity & Standards. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed every time I tried to plan, and I wanted little reminders of what I should be including each week. So here’s a breakdown of the pieces included, and why I chose to include them:
- Monday – Friday: Little ones thrive on routine! Knowing what comes next helps them feel safe and confident, which makes learning time so much smoother, and when your child heads to kindergarten later on, the rhythm will already feel familiar.
- Five 15 Minute Blocks a Day: I only put 5 blocks/sections on each day. Through trial and error with my own son, this seems to be the sweet spot of capability before burn-out. Plus, as you’ll read later on, there’s so much more you can do outside of this template!
- 5x a Week Checks: These 3 are taken directly from the California Preschool Learning Foundations. That’s why I make sure to plan for one of each of these activities, every day.
- SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) – For us that might look something like identifying emotions with Play-Doh faces.
- ELA (English Language Arts) – Things like letter tracing and read-alouds.
- Math – Like counting snacks and building shapes.
- 1x a Week Checks: These are our bonus blocks! Science, Music, Art, and PE have immense benefits for little bodies and brains. I try to plan for at least one of each of these a week, but sometimes we plan for a couple of each 😅
*Friendly Tips* I use the same planner each week. I laminated mine using my personal laminator, and write on it using wet-erase pens. It saves on paper and doesn’t get smudged like dry erase!
How I Plan Our Preschool Week in a Few Minutes:
With all of the pieces of this planner in mind, here is how I go about planning for my preschool week, in just a few minutes, every Sunday. (You could also do this on Monday morning, but I’m not a morning person 🤪)
- Calendar: I know that I will always do my calendar check in at the beginning of our day, so I just write it in first. It’s the perfect transition into learning, and it only takes a few minutes! Plus, it sneaks in so much: counting, days of the week, weather words, and a little independence as he starts leading it himself.
- The 5x’s: I know I need to accomplish 5 blocks of SEL, ELA, and math so I write those in for the entire week. I don’t get crazy complicated with these blocks either! Most days, it’s a simple task like number formation for math, or CVC words for ELA. Honestly, half of our ELA blocks use just a whiteboard and a dry erase marker: tracing letters, letter hunts, or a quick letter-picture match.
- The 1x’s: Next I fill in our bonus blocks, making sure we have at least one of each for the week. We will do things like yoga for PE, fingerpainting for art, or even build a house out of marshmallows and toothpicks for science!
4. Something fresh: Then I fill in 1-2 boxes with something new to keep things exciting! Sometimes that’s an extra art project or science experiment, and sometimes it’s a themed activity or something brand new we’ve been wanting to try. If you’re ever looking for some inspiration, I share our favorites every Sunday in my newsletter, plus I have a whole activity library available for you!
How to Include Themes in Your Week of Preschool:
If you’ve been in the homeschool space on social media then I’m sure you’ve seen these parents planning elaborately-themed weeks. There’s nothing wrong with that! I’m just not always prepped for such aesthetics 😅 When I have done themed weeks, here’s what I typically try to accomplish:
- Pick your theme: It could be a color, a fruit/vegetable, or it could match an upcoming holiday! We’ve done everything from ocean week to shapes week.
- Adapt at least one activity a day to fit your theme: When we did pumpkin week this fall, we planted pumpkin seeds and learned the pumpkin life cycle for science, painted a pumpkin patch for art, etc. To keep the fall vibes going, we jumped into some apple-themes the next week, which included apple-picking math!
- Throw in some themed read alouds: Books are a great way to tie in themes and really transform the learning vibe. Here’s how I turn any picture book into a lesson! An example from pumpkin week? Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins!
Affiliate Disclaimer: I may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my blog!
Give Yourself Grace (and Leave Room for Play)
If you are jumping into home-preschool for the first time, or maybe you’re just looking for a new routine, I want to remind you of two very important things:
1. You do not have to do every item on your planner to have a successful week.
There are weeks when something gets forgotten, we run out of time, or we agree our time should be spent at the park. Give yourself grace!
2. School isn’t the only way your child learns – Leave room for play!
When I referenced earlier how much can be done outside of this planner, I meant it! Letting your child play, explore, pretend, and feel are some of the greatest learning moments.
Grab Your Free Preschool Weekly Planner:
Ready to give it a try? Grab your free weekly planner below, print it out (or laminate it like I did!), and you’ll be set for your very first week. And if you’re wondering what else you actually need to get started, I promise it’s not much! I rounded up the 6 things we use every single day for preschool at home, and most of them you probably already have.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, this planner is just a tool to help you feel organized as you start your homeschool journey. As a former educator, I love knowing we’re getting exposure to important preschool skills, but as a mom, I also know that some of the best learning happens outside of those planner-boxes. 💚
❤️ Until Next Time,
